Chapter 55: Chapter 55: A Beautiful Past (III)
Claudia POV
The eyes behind his glasses softened as he looked at me, a quiet gentleness pooling within them as his lips curved into a smile.
It was one of those very rare moments of Ray Gatlin looking like a normal human being, For once, he didn’t look like the man I had come to know, the one whose emotions were always measured, controlled... or burning with restrained rage. This smile was different. Unpracticed, honest, but also dangerous in a way I couldn’t quite explain.
Maybe I was always a stupid and shallow girl who liked looking at a handsome man in front of me. But when Ray showed a faint, yet... genuine smile like this, my heart began to race and heat spread all over my body.
I was unsettled on how easy it was for Ray to give me this feeling of losing myself in his eyes.
I didn’t want to lose control, so I quickly pushed him away, putting space between us before my thoughts could wander any further.
"W-well, thank you for catching me," I muttered, avoiding his gaze. "You didn’t have to do that, though."
"Did I?" he chuckled softly, the sound low and warm as he finally let me go.
We sat side by side in the swan boat and then started pedaling toward the middle of the lake.
The warm weather of early autumn was perfect. Otherwise, it would’ve been too cold or too humid for us to use the swan boat in the middle of the day.
On top of that, I was also grateful that there weren’t many people in the park. It would be so embarrassing to bump into younger couples while we were already in our mid-thirties.
My eyes flicked toward Ray many times, stealing glances to see his reaction to what we were doing right now.
But true to himself, Ray didn’t look bothered, nor did he look entertained. He kept pedaling with an absolutely flat expression.
Perhaps I had been stealing glances too many times, because Ray suddenly said, "You don’t seem happy with this. Do you not like the swan boat? Or should we get another one? Maybe you like the duck one."
"N-no, this one’s perfect!" I quickly stopped him from doing something even more ridiculous. "I-I’m just a little embarrassed, you know. We’re already in our mid-thirties and doing this. If we were still in our early or mid-twenties, then it might be a cute thing to do..."
"You might not remember it, but riding a pedal boat with you was one of the things on my wishlist when we were still dating."
The confession came out naturally. Not that it mattered in the end, because my thoughts from the past should’ve stayed there. There was no future between Ray and me, and everything right now was just him fulfilling my request to go out for a walk.
"Really? I don’t remember at all," he said flatly, and I laughed it off.
"Of course you don’t, silly. I’m glad that you don’t remember my stupid wishlist, because it’s just too embarrassing!" I sighed pitifully to myself. "I was a country bumpkin—a young girl who came from the middle of nowhere to the big city, with too many wishes that I wanted to fulfill in my younger days."
"Such as riding a pedal boat. My small town is just flat, dry land everywhere. The temperature is so hot and arid that I had never seen a lake in my entire life before coming here," I muttered.
I had actually told Ray about this back then, but knowing him, he probably never paid attention or had forgotten about it completely.
"If only Miles wanted to bring Aurora here. She’d be so happy riding this swan boat."
"Your daughter never rode this?" he asked.
"No. Well, I cannot swim, and Aurora is too young. I’m afraid of any accidents, and no one would be able to save her," I slowly clenched the steering handle as I remembered Miles. "Miles can swim, but... he refuses to go out with us."
"..."
There was a long silence between us after that.
I glanced at him again and saw that Ray was in his "contemplating mode." He always had this conflicted expression while looking down whenever he was thinking about something important.
I noticed this habit early on when we started dating, because Ray always had something on his mind and would ponder in silence even when I tried to talk to him.
It was also an early red flag that I ignored, because every word that came out of his mouth felt fabricated. Every promise, every sweet word, and even every question he asked felt like he was reading from a script in his head.
So I never knew if Ray could actually be genuinely in love with someone.
We finally stopped pedaling once we reached the middle of the lake. I told him to rest for a bit while enjoying the view.
"Don’t you think this view is beautiful?" I asked before slowly turning my head toward him. "Since you’ve always been busy with this and that, I think it’s good to rest a bit. Being overly stressed is not good for your health."
"I exercise regularly to release stress. There’s no need to walk in a park in the middle of the day like this," Ray replied. He glanced back at me and grinned. "At least not when alone. Spending time like this with someone else doesn’t sound too bad."
Again with that faint smile.
He looked way too handsome when he showed even a hint of sincerity.
His deep emerald green eyes were beautiful when they didn’t have traces of red around the edges. As long as he didn’t look sinister, Ray would be the most handsome man I knew in real life.
Ah... I guess I’m still the same little girl who loves looking at handsome men.
That thought crossed my mind as my cheeks heated up again.
However, the moment was shattered when Ray’s phone in his chest pocket suddenly rang.
He checked his phone, and I happened to read the name of the caller on the screen.
Miles Hoffman.
My heart skipped a beat when I saw that name, and the warmth in my chest vanished instantly.
I knew that Miles and Ray were technically stepbrothers, and though they weren’t on good terms, I heard from Penelope—Miles’ secretary—that Ray was also his business partner.
But why now? What was he calling Ray for?
"What do you think, Claudia?" Ray suddenly asked me. "Should I pick it up?"
